Republican boldly fights to ban tiny horses from restaurants

A radical new injustice — tiny horses helping disabled people — is sweeping the nation thanks to the Obama administration, but the forces of evil may have finally met their match in Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), who wants to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ban the creatures from restaurants.

He announced the proposal in response to the Obama administration altering the ADA to make an exception for specially trained miniature horses that work in the place of service dogs to help disabled people. The law specifically excludes horses from the definition of “service animal,” however, noting that there are some situations “where using a horse would not be appropriate.” Like in a restaurant.

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Nevertheless, Chaffetz bravely soldiers on.

Appearing on MSNBC on Thursday, Chaffetz explained that his amendment would let restaurants ban horses without fear of a lawsuit. “Think about airplanes,” he said. “Look, even the Miniature Horse Association… has come out and said, ‘Look, you can’t potty train, for instance, a horse to the same degree you can a canine.’ And so it just seems like the federal government, the Department of Justice, is going overboard in issuing a rule.”

The amendment, he explained in an editorial published last month, would theoretically save businesses money and frustration, but it is not clear how many such lawsuits have been filed.

Still, Chaffetz cites “estimates” by the conservative business advocacy group Competitive Enterprise Institute — an organization with a history of denying climate science and the harms of tobacco — which claims that the sum total of all government regulations “cost the economy $1.75 trillion in 2008.”

“That’s Trillion with a T,” he wrote. “If you were to spend $1 million a day every day, it would take you nearly 3,000 years just to get to $1 trillion. That’s a massive drag on the US economy.”

For a man to scale a mountain, he must first start his climb somewhere. For Chaffetz, that somewhere is apparently tiny horses.

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About the Author

Stephen C. Webster is the senior editor of Raw Story, and is based out of Austin, Texas. He previously worked as the associate editor of The Lone Star Iconoclast in Crawford, Texas, where he covered state politics and the peace movement’s resurgence at the start of the Iraq war. Webster has also contributed to publications such as True/Slant, Austin Monthly, The Dallas Business Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Weekly, The News Connection and others. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenCWebster.